() (born
February 16 ,
1921 ) was
Mao Zedong 's designated successor as the paramount leader of the
Communist Party Of China and the
People's Republic Of China . Upon
Zhou Enlai 's death in 1976, he succeeded him as
Premier Of The People's Republic Of China . Months later, Mao died, and Hua succeeded Mao as the
Chairman Of The Communist Party Of China , to the surprise and dismay of
Jiang Qing and the rest of the
Gang Of Four . He brought the
Cultural Revolution to an end and ousted the Gang of Four from political power, but he was himself outmaneuvered a couple years later by
Deng Xiaoping , who forced Hua into early retirement.
Born in
Jiaocheng ,
Shanxi province as (刘苏铸), Hua joined the
Communist Party Of China in 1938 as a part of counter-
Japan ese resistance. During the mid-1940's he became propaganda chief for the county Party committee.
Hua was elected to the Politburo in 1973 and was minister of public security in 1975. He became acting
Premier Of The People's Republic Of China following
Zhou Enlai 's death, in January
1976 , full Premier and party vice chairman in April 1976, and Chairman of the
Communist Party Of China when Mao died, in September
1976 (although this was not announced to the world until
October 12 ).
During his relatively short leadership, Hua was credited for quickly ousting the Gang of Four from political power and thus became the leader whose emergence marked the end of the
Cultural Revolution as currently dated. Hua's economic and political program involved the restoration of Soviet-style industrial planning and party control similar to that followed by China before the
Great Leap Forward . However, this model was rejected by supporters of
Deng Xiaoping who argued for a more market based economic system. This argument was decisively resolved in Deng's favor in 1978, which is generally taken as the start of the era of
Chinese Economic Reform .
As
Deng Xiaoping gradually regained control over the CPC, Hua was denounced for promoting the
Two Whatevers policy and replaced by
Zhao Ziyang as Premier in
1980 , and by
Hu Yaobang as Party Chairman in
1981 . Both Zhao and Hu were protégés of Deng who were dedicated to
Chinese Economic Reform . Hua Guofeng was demoted to junior Vice Chairman, and when this post was abolished in
1982 he remained as an ordinary member of the Central Committee, a position which he held until the 16th Party Congress of
November 2002 despite having passed the designated retirement age of seventy. The ousting of Hua was significant in at least two respects. First it demonstrated the unimportance of official titles in the Chinese Communist Party during the late-1970's and early-1980's. Despite being the official leader of the party, the state, and the army, Hua was unable to defeat a leadership challenge by Deng Xiaoping. Second, Hua's ousting helped establish a norm within the PRC that political leaders who lost a power struggle would not be physically harmed or jailed, in contrast to the situations both during the
Cultural Revolution and afterwards with the
Gang Of Four .
He officially lost his seat in early 2002 on the Central Committee of the CCP.
